Bi-monthly mandatory store meetings on Sundays at 6am are the very bane of my existence – but if there was one good thing to come out of our most recent one, it was this 1981 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that was sitting in the parking lot when I got out. As I’ve expressed before, I happen to like these B-body Oldsmobiles a great deal. They have a memorable face that is one of the first things I think of when I hear “Oldsmobile”, and I find their styling most appealing when compared to other contemporary B-bodies.
This isn’t the first time I’ve spotted this Delta 88. I’ve passed it and its driver on the road before, and I have also seen it parked in the very same spot on other occasional Sundays. Its driver is an elderly gentleman who presumably goes to Panera (the only business in the plaza open before 8am) for his Sunday coffee and breakfast. This was the first time I was able to get up close and take pictures of it, and I made a rather interesting discovery.
This Delta 88 is the top-trim Royale Brougham, which entitled it to the omnipresent “loose pillow” style velour seating. As Oldsmobile’s lesser full-size sedan, the 88’s loose pillow seating was a bit less opulent than the Ninety-Eight Regency’s. While seat bottoms were still adorned with buttons, only the seat backs received the floating cushions.
Peering into it, I noticed that the driver’s seat had spawned a seat bottom loose pillow of its very own! Presumably for added seat height, as opposed to mere Broughamtastic style, I must applaud the owner’s choosing of one that matches the rest of the interior, which was very nice, I might add. Although not an exact match, it does possess the correct amount of buttons!
I hope this Olds continues to be a Sunday morning fixture in the Derby Street Shoppes parking lot. It’s a different piece of scenery to look out at in the wee morning hours, before the big SUVs and CUVs come out to play.
Related Reading:
1981 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Brougham Diesel
Still have the family’s 1978 Delta 88 Royale. I’ve always liked the looks of 1980-1984 four door Olds 98 as displayed in the above brochure.
I like all the B body cars, especially the 2 door models. They are so cool compared to the utter blandness of newer cars. I love the plush seats, big wide flat dashboard that does not give you claustrophobia, the wire wheel covers, whitewall tires, hood ornament, flat vertical grille, and the bright trim on the B pillar. If that car were mine, I would at least restore the exterior to near new. Doesn’t look like it would take very much.
Ahh, yes, as someone who quite literally spent millions of kms driving B Bodies, I can also say that I do not miss:
-The understeer.
-The less than stellar brakes that lack ABS.
-No airbags.
-The less than fantastic fuel consumption.
-The ride of rough roads, with the live axle bouncing around.
-The collapsed seat, like the car in the article.
-Vacuuming out said plush seats.
-The dearth of power.
-The automatic a/c that never worked/
-The THM200 most of them had.
Restoring the exterior of this car would cost several thousand dollars, more than the car is worth. You’d be much better buying a nice original car, and there are still lots around. Even with the ready supply of old sleds, I see very few people driving them, and that includes most of the posters here…….I wonder why…..
Wait? Its not a Ferrari?
It wont go 0-60 in 3.6 seconds?
Well then the hell with it…. 😉
There goes my “Newbergring” Olds Delta 88 Royale Challenge W-30 Stradalle Superleggera concept…..
There does seem to be a good number of 88 coupes around, there are like 3 on Cragislist near me, you would be hard pressed to maybe pass $3K for the best one of these in the world, so yeah, restoring one would make no sense.
I agree with you on a lot of these points for the B-bodies, but I will add some comments from my own experience.
I didn’t find the F41 equipped cars understeered too badly. In fact in the early 80’s the Chevy Caprice made the Car and Driver ten best list for it’s good handling (for the day). I only bought B-body’s with F41 or F40 suspension.
No airbags never bothered me, my daily driver up until a couple years ago
had none. For that era, not much else did either.
I am sure in your fleet operations they weren’t great for fuel economy. But my vehicles were great for what they were. High 20’s (IMP) were the norm on the highway for both 305 and 307 powered cars I owned (OD).
The collapsed seat was an issue. The only one that didn’t was my Olds Custom Cruiser.
I never owned one with the plush velour interior, but the standard cloths were fine. The highly textured cloth/vinyl interior in the Olds Custom Cruisers was very durable and easy to clean.
The 307’s were slow. I used to be able to get acceptable performance out of them with a few driving techniques, but they were just plain slow. I never had any complaints about the 305’s, moved out decently considering how over-geared these cars were (all mine were OD).
Only had one with auto A/C, and it stopped working. I was able to convert it to a manual temperature control very easily with almost not parts.
I never owned a TH200, always avoided them like the plague. The TH700R4s and TH2004R’s I owned lasted into the 200K mile range without failure though.
I agree that this Olds is too far gone to be worth saving. I just hope it at least has a 307 in it, sadly that was the best choice in 1981 (3.8L V6, 260 V8, or 350 Diesel).
The FE-3 from Oldsmobile was the best set-up of them all. It made the cars drive very well for their day. The best B Body I ever had was a 1977 Olds 88 Royale Brougham with FE-3 and the Olds Rocket 350. That was a really nice car and it was almost sad to make it into a taxi. But like my dad said, “It’s only iron!”
My ’85 had the F41 Suspension and it was pretty good. I know most Olds had FE3, but my RPO sticker was F41 and it had front and rear sway bars. My personal favourite B-body, and IMO the best one, was the 1989-90 9C1 Caprice with the L05 350. Great suspension, clean styling, tough and fast for its day. I had the chance to by one about 15 years ago, but passed on it because it wasn’t the cleanest car (it was an ex Ministry of Transportation cruiser). In hindsight, these cars are so rare now, I should have bought it and fixed it up.
A good friend had a ’78 Olds with a 350, but base suspension. It was decent, but I preferred the Chevy 350 LM1. It had better high RPM pull, the Olds was better at low RPMs. My second choice would be a 1977-79 Caprice coupe with F41 suspension. Ran high 16’s 1/4 mile stock (it would out run a 403 Olds) and great handling for it’s day.
GM’s automatic A/C system was quite good… What wasn’t was the R-4 A/C compressors of the late seventies and eighties (some cars with 6 cyl engines already had them in 1975) and the cheaper components used in the refrigerating systems of the 1980s cars. And automatic A/C wasn’t even available on the featured car. Oldsmobile stopped to offer the automatic Comfortron for the 1974 model year and at least until the mid-eighties, they could only be ordered with the manual controls or with the “Tempmatic” semi-auto system (thermostatic temperature only).
As for airbags, “B” (and “C”) bodies were the very first cars to have them, (on both driver and passenger sides) back in 1973…
Here’s a 1974 LeSabre Luxus with airbags.
I have airbags in my 1975 Buick Electra. It also has Automatic Climate Control that still works well.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/1619498@N22/pool/50488533@N00/
The base a/c was excellent. It was the auto system that was the pain.
We had many cars so equipped.
Even the relatively simple Temp Matic system on Oldsmobiles was a temperamental pain. Mine (on a dealer maintained one owner car) never worked right.
I had two GM cars from the 1970’s with automatic a/c and they never gave me trouble (except for a 30 amps fuse below the glovebox that sometimes overheats if it has a bad contact in it’s fuse holder, I had to do something about that in both cars). I still have my 1975 Electra and the Automatic Climate Control and it works great.
A friend of mine had a 1981 Regal Limited with automatic a/c and while the compressor failed, the automatic control still worked well when he got rid of it.
I did have a 1967 Buick with automatic a/c, now these were the ones to run away from!
The control panels for early 80’s Buicks were unchanged from the one in my 1975 Electra in the picture below. Some had the “Electronic Climate Control” version but I never had one of these.
I think that’s a Mark IV auto temp controller?
As far as I can recall from the service manual, I have that set up on my wagon, it works pretty well. This system transitioned to the downsized cars (like Cadillacs until did) until the electronic systems started to appear in Buicks and Cadillacs in 1980.
This was even available in the Regals too, even the downsized 78 ones, I’ve seen a couple, the 1975 style Mark IV controller was also the auto-ac controller for the downsized 1979 Rivieras, I don’t think that they got the electronic touch unit until 1981, as far as I can recall the “touch” system was a “big deal” Electra exclusive thingamagig for 1980.
Nice ACRS car, It looks like you have the fuel economy gauge on the right of the speedometer too? I think I’ve only ever seen one ACRS car in the flesh, it was a brown Riviera I saw once in an apartment parking lot in the early 90’s, I remember walking past it and noticing the large steering wheel center.
I should have specified mine was a tempmatic too. It never worked right so I bypassed it. Mine always had issues with the vacuum actuators leaking and then it couldn’t keep temperature properly. This was an issue with the car since it was new. I was able to use the same cable for the temperature control to control the heater door. Simple fix, worked just like a normal non-tempmatic car. Every other b-body I owned was a non-A/C car. Non-A/C cars were still very common in this area during the 1980s.
Carmine, if you’re referring to the new 1975 programmer (that’s the part that controls the temperature, the fan speeds and the air distribution under the glovebox), GM called it “Mark II”. The main difference between this programmer and the earlier model is that the new one added an “Economy” mode (the previous model’s control panels showed a “Vent” position instead). Apparently, when the temperature control failed to get information from the sensors, the Mark II programmer went to full heat while the previous one went to full cooling. I did unplug one of the temp sensors under the hood of my 1975 Electra to see what would happen and the system went to full heat. I didn’t try that on a 1974 or earlier model to see if it goes to full cooling but that’s what the manual says!
A friend of mine has a 1972 Riviera with the previous style programmer and while his car’s refrigerating system doesn’t work, the automatic control works fine.
The Mark II programmer was also used in in the 1975 Century/Regal. For 1976-77, they had the Oldsmobile Tempmatic-style “Custom Aire” semi-auto system on the Century/Regak/LeSabre and Estate Wagon. The Electra/Riviera kept using the fully automatic system for those two years. In 1978, the semi-auto was gone and the Century/Regal/LeSabre and Estate Wagon could be ordered with the Automatic Climate Control again.
Here’s a better shot at the fuel usage gauge.
I like it BECAUSE of the most of the reasons you mentioned, plus it’s style. I love old cars, but cannot afford expensive ones. My current collection is a 1964 Fairlane convertible, and a 1973 Pinto woodgrain station wagon. Both are in decent shape, but are by no means show cars. Both these cars even have points and coil ignition. I do not like electronics of any kind on a car. Both of my cars are also pre emissions, which I think is great.
Yet, as much as I love them, they do not get used very much. The reason why is simple, and actually would be easy to fix, if not exactly cheap. They do not have A/C. (I live in Phoenix, AZ) My daily driver is a 2001 Malibu. I absolutely hate this car. There is nothing about it a vintage car enthusiast would like. You might as well be driving a refrigerator. In fact that is the reason I drive it. It has A/C.
Some minor bodywork, a new paint job, and a good cleanup/detailing would go a long way toward making that car look good again.
The weak point on GM cars of that era was the rubber bushings in the suspension and body mounts. They rotted out very quickly. If you buy a car like that, count on replacing all of them.
Supposedly bad things about the B-Body:
-The understeer.
What do you want, it’s a big, RWD car?
-The less than stellar brakes that lack ABS.
Maybe it’s because I’ve never owned anything but these old boats but I never had any issue with the brakes. In fact, the ’93 Fleetwood I (for the moment, will be selling soon) have has ABS but has developed some kind of electrical short that has wreaked havoc with the interior lights, power door locks, and other stuff, which never happened in these older ‘primitive’ cars.
-No airbags.
It’s indisputable that head-oning someone at 35 mph or losing control and smashing into a guardrail at 50 are good times to have airbags. However, the majority of accidents I have been in were at speeds below 15 mph. Typically, these would result in $4K worth of damage to the newer car, and a scratch on my bumper guard. With collapsible steering columns and over the shoulder belts, if you maintain the suspension parts and don’t drive like an idiot, your chances of survival without airbags are pretty good.
-The less than fantastic fuel consumption.
Not fantastic, but not awful either. I’ve yet to own either a B-C Body or Panther that couldn’t pull mid-20s on the highway if it had overdrive. Even my ’77 Electra, which is a 3-speed, can get up to 18-19 highway. Not stellar, but not Hummer territory by a long shot.
-The ride of rough roads, with the live axle bouncing around.
Yeah, there’s some float. I think a lot of people like these cars for that. I like not feeling every pavement imperfection. I like sitting on a couch and feeling like the world is covered in Barbasol.
-The collapsed seat, like the car in the article.
Again, I’ve not experienced this issue.
-Vacuuming out said plush seats.
What is the car wash staff for, if not that?
-The dearth of power.
The Olds 307 was a challenge on hills. I have 0 power complaints about the Buick 350, Chevy L05, or even the Ford 302. I’m happy to drive in the right lane, it’s not a sports car. It was never supposed to be.
-The automatic a/c that never worked/
23 flawless years of the Automatic Climate Control in the ’87 Brougham. The heater core went at one point. Cheap repair, up and running again in an afternoon. R-12 A/C still working on the ’77 Electra. Blower motor went at one point. Another cheap repair. Compare to a friend’s ’88 Mercedes wagon. A/C crapped out. He claimed (I can’t verify), that the estimate was several thousand dollars because getting to the compressor involved removing the engine block. I believe it.
-The THM200 most of them had.
I hear terrible things about the ones from the early ’80s, but they did straighten out the kinks eventually. Mine from the ’87 had 175K when I sold it, and was working fine, nothing but fluid and filter changes every 30K as per the manual. If they’re so terrible, why are so many still tooling around?
– I see very few people driving them, I wonder why…
There’s a ready supply, but no one’s driving them? The fact that someone posts one almost every other week on this blog seems to be counter-indicative. Of course, very few people are driving them DAILY compared to the majority of the population because obviously there are many newer cars available and most people put a lot of miles on their new cars. If I had to drive a normal commute every day instead of taking the car out for a highway trip once or twice a week, I would have a different car as well, not because these are bad but because I would want to preserve the one I have, not put the national average of 12K/year on it.
I have a 1983 Olds Delta 88 2 Door I bought when I was 17 years old.
30 years I have had my car it is beautiful. Only 2 people have ever owned
this car. It has nice interior,a 4 barrel carb,350 Chevy Motor 30 over, I topped
off the Motor with all cool blue from Summit Racing like the Air Breather, Alternator,Hoses ect.. Hooker Headers with Dual Exhaust and Chrome tips.
There is nothing like old school cars you don’t see any olds 2 doors clean like mine around here. Not very many women can say they have had there teenage car for 30 years and turned it into a hotrod. I have thought about selling it recently but not a clue what I would sell it for.
sorry the picture was upside down my bad
Nice catch!
Looking at the interior……I miss chrome trimmed gas and brake pedals, look at the gas pedal on this thing, its bus sized!
I can imagine the old man giving you the thousand yard stare from behind his coffee from inside the Panera…….
Get off my Olds!
Some men are Baptists, others Catholics; my father was an Oldsmobile man!
From “Christmas Story”?
Yeah. An annual classic.
My maternal Grandpa only drove Olds, virtually all were 88’s. He even had a Diesel 88 sedan with those seats, I’m sure it was a Royal Brougham, it was loaded. Despite the legendary problems it had, he remianed faithful to the brand. It was traded for the same gasser version.
His last was a 3.1 v6 Cutlass Ciera, I think it was a 96? It was one of the last of the series. It was his favorite Olds of all. He would rant rave about the handling and power, and the Delco cassette stereo that he could hear despite being half deaf. It was a true sleeper, I would blast it to merge in Miami traffic, where no one will let you merge. If I floored before my opponents, I got the spot. It would effortlessly hit the 105mph speed limiter on the Alligator Alley. Well, the handling- at least he was pleased, and it was better and faster than 307 B bodies- but still Barcolounger tuned.
His generation were loyal to their brands. Maybe it looked flighty to hop brands. And I think therre was a social taboo of driving a higher line car than your boss.
I like those last A’s, they have a funny “new” 1982 car in 1996 feel, but they are nice and the last off the “old-school” FWD GM cars, which were full of 70’s style hardware like the “flipper” door handles, like a Colonnade or a B body and the old 2-key, teeth down set up, chrome trimmed wiper, tilt and shifter levers, the 60’s style GM brake and gas pedals. Strip speedometers, the circa 1985 style Delco radio .
As a bonus, by the 90’s they had been making these things for years and the people putting them together could probably do it in their sleep. So they were pretty damn durable too.
I think I prefer the Century, it still kept the woodgrained dash after Oldsmobile sort of “euro-ed up” the Ciera dash. Plus the Century had the full width taillights.
I agree, the Ciera had a Celebrity vibe, but the Century looked like a real Buick. It also had the best dashboard and interior. Grandpa’s Ciera had decent trombone case velour seats and padded doors, but the dashboard had been decontented to tuperwear and had bizarre pivoting cone a/c vents. It was a weird contrast that you would notice every time you got in the car. And yea, the door handles and c irca 79 climate control sliders, dome cabin light, and cruise control stalk on the turn signal were trippy. And the power seats were only fore and aft, the other adjustments were manual.
Don’t forget that cool and practical map light in the 82-96 Centuries. It was simply a switch with a light at the bottom of it. No extra wires needed to put it on the visor and it was situated just right for map reading.
The 89-93 versions with the 3300 V6 were the most reliable. In 1994 they changed it to the 3100 V6 which was really not reliable at all. It was a pain to work on and ate intake gaskets like nothing else(even before Dexcool was introduced and started being blamed for it)
But the thing I liked most about the Century and Ciera was that if you needed an interior part for your 1993 Century/Ciera and all you could find was a 1985 in your color, well it would work on your car. I remember in 1996 going to an Enterprise car sale sponsored by my folks credit union. It had a butt load of Century and Ciera’s and those sold very quickly as they were loved for the low price and ride.
Yes, the map light switch WAS the map light, proof that even GM could come up with some creative ideas every once in a while. I forgot about the “slider” air conditioning controls too, classic GM.
Even the 98’s seat bottoms were not loose pillow, but they did get the tufted cushions. The full loose pillow was found on Buicks and Cadillacs. Buick’s mid 70’s Park Avenue interior was a full loose cushion pillow style, but not a flashy as the Regency. My 76 Riviera had the S/R package with pillow style seats, but not very obvious. After I bought the 78 Olds Regency, I realized where the differences were.
Royale with cheese!
Seeing this B-body coupe is painful for me because I’ve suddenly become obsessed with the 1977-1979 Buick Lesabre coupe, with the beautiful and graceful and perfectly proportioned roofline (preferably in steel), and now no other B-body will do! A steel roofed 1977-1979 Pontiac Catalina coupe is close, but I don’t like the front end as well, and the Olds 88 coupe had a different c-pillar and the Impala bent glass, while quite attractive in itself, creates what I find to be a strange b/c pillar. Please someone find and write up a LeSabre!
I never warmed up to these. The 77-79 Olds was my fave of the B bodies, but the 1980 refresh ruined the car in my eyes. To me, it looked like one of those old plastic promo models that got left in the attic and drooped in the front and rear.
That’s just what I thought when I saw it, but couldn’t figure out how to express it. Great analogy.
I’ll take mine with the Holiday bucket seat sport mirror package plus a power seat and those Olds rally wheels. FE3 suspension and the top 307 4BBL with 4 speed overdrive are other musts along with a rear end upgrade to at least a 3.08 gear with limited slip. Too bad they sold so few this way as they were a really tight nice handling full size.
What you mention was the BEST B body EVER. I had one as my driver for a half a year or so, and it was a very nice car.
While the first generation in 77-79 were great, these were a nice improvement, in my opinion. The squared off rear window gave the car a more formal look and the lower angled hood made it look sleeker. Loved the coupe with buckets seats and console, hard to find now, I’d bet. They delivered what they were designed to do. Great cars!
There actually is a 1980 Holiday 88 coupe for sale on ebay right now, believe it or not! Buckets and console and a 307, fairly well equipped, they’ve tried to sell this car a couple of times, its not the first time I’ve seen it, they want $5995 for it, which isn’t bad, the car seems pretty clean, but there just isn’t big interest in these yet and there may never be.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Oldsmobile-Eighty-Eight-Holiday-88-1980-holiday-88-used-automatic-coupe-/361096281834?forcerrptr=true&hash=item541303feea&item=361096281834&pt=US_Cars_Trucks
Wow, that is so tempting. My iPad 1.0 only loaded acme of the photos, dang. Buckets and console, I never knew of those in 88’s. It probably has the full “gage” package with tach. Those were so cool, you still had the complete warning light panel on the right side of the display.
I sure hope this beauty doesn’t end up donked.
Unfortunately, there was no tacho available on any B-body until the 90’s. There were gauge packages on the Pontiac and seldom seen on the Olds.
I have had my eye on this car for quite some time now. If it wasn’t so far away from me and was a nicer cooler it would probably be in my driveway. Try finding another 1980 holiday coupe.
Olds came a long way from this one I saw yesterday
Nice find Brendan!
This would be a good story to share with TBS, as it’s 80’s Week!
Thank you. I just posted the link.
I owned an ’83 Delta 88 Royale Brougham sedan, silver with burgundy vinyl roof and interior, from 1983 to 1999 and put 176,000 miles on it. Still regret trading it for a base Chevy Malibu with a 3.1 V6. The Olds had the 307 Rocket, Turbo-Hydramatic 200 4R, power everything, standard A/C (not the Comfortron), tilt wheel, cruise, trunk release and locking wire wheelcovers. Never left me stranded alongside the road. After driving 4 front-drive GM cars and an ’87 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, I have moved back to rear-drive, V8 power and body-on-frame construction as I now drive a 2009 Mercury Grand Marquis LS with a 4.6 V8, leather 50/50 Twin Comfort Lounge seats, deep well trunk, front and rear armrests and pockets on the backs of the front seats. Had Olds kept on building 88s, 98s and Cutlass Supremes in this rear-drive, V8 power configuration rather than downsize in the 1980s, they’d still be in business today.
I drive this one every day, it beats the hell out of being stuck in a Camry. Ive driven many late model high-end luxury cars and there is no more comfortable car on the road. The 307 is gutless but smooth as silk and I have already retrofitted a TH350 in it so the drivetrain is bulletproof; if I come across a low mileage 403 I would swap it in.
The RWD Bs and Gs are the last of the cars from General Motors.
An Edelbrock intake, a different cam and dual exhaust help a 307 an awful lot and for only about $1000.
Yep, it was amazing what a few simple performance upgrades did for my clunky Malibu of the same era.
Have you put a pentastar on one of the front quarters?
Very nice car, looks like it’s in great shape. It makes me miss my old Olds’. I never got the chance to own a coupe but always wanted one. A buddy of mine had a very similar car to yours and his dad worked at a wrecker. It started with a 307 he blew it up. Swapped a 403 and the thing was a rocket, but drank gas. So his dad got him a 260, and then it barely got out of it’s own way.
I picked up a used 403 for My Olds Custom Cruiser for $300. It was from a 78 Trans Am and even already had the Eddy intake. I intended to do the swap, unfortunately the car and engine were destroyed in a fire. If you can’t find a 403, even a 350 Olds would be a huge upgrade. The old ’78 Delta 88 with a 350 4bbl Olds could run circles around my ’85 Delta 88 with a 307.
I have to agree with LTDan on the 307. Smooooth, quiet but gutless. I had one in an ’84 Olds 98 (standard 98) and drove it to 205,000 miles, when the timing chain went south.
It was a cruising car, not a hot rod — I often wished for more power — and on a long trip with cruise engaged, would get around 24 mpg. It had the 700R4, so never had a tranny problem either.
As an Australian, I never could understand these cars. Fake wire-wheel hubcaps, huge overhangs, poofy buttoned velour with extra-extra pillows attached. Did buyers really demand these things?
From the late-1970s through the mid-1980s, these style cars were really the only type of car you could get if you wanted something more premium. Japanese luxury cars were nonexistent, and anything from Europe was ridiculously expensive (a 1981 Mercedes 280E started at $27,000 UDS, which is about $70,000 today). The ’70s energy crises essentially killed anything large and/or sporty. Cars were all styled very square and similar, so vinyl roofs and wire wheels were an easy way to dress them up. There really wasn’t much choice, and I don’t think most middle-to-upper class Americans minded. Tastes were just different then.
I’d compare the current “sport” styling trend of today’s cars to the Brougham era. It’s like a Toyota Camry SE with its ground effects and fake suede interior. These touches add a little more distinction to an otherwise regular sedan. Or on the other end, Mercedes’ “sport styling” packages. I’m totally against them eschewing the traditional stand-up hood ornament and chrome trim for a huge grille emblem and black-out trim, but it’s what consumer taste dictates.
By the early 80’s the Toyota Cressida and Nissan Maxima were selling well here in SoCal and met the need for “something more premium” for a lot of people. I remember being surprised when I first rode in both of these models purchased by friends because they were so well equipped, smooth, and relatively quiet -qualities I did not expect in a Japanese car at the time. And the interiors were fairly luxe if not full luxury. I knew quite a few folks who’d formerly owned full-sized Oldsmobiles who bought the Cressida and Maxima and never looked back. Of course when I went back to the midwest to visit, Oldsmobiles were still prominent – my cousin purchased a new four door version of the featured car that she owned for many years before they moved on to a more deluxe Buick – Ultra something or other…
There was a couple of years that the Cressida even had a semi-pillow button type seat like a Cadillac, plus I recall that even had phony woodgrain on inserts in the dash, they were the most “American” Japanese cars, they’re kind of interesting, they weren’t even that big and they are sort of really cheap, even if you find a pretty clean one, they are a 6 and RWD, could be an interesting driver.
Wow…I…I’ve seen a few Cressidas like this.
Cressida 7th Avenue de Broughville Landau
That cannot be unseen. Is that factory, dealer or way, way aftermarket?
Wow, and I thought the Mark VI with the canvas top positively pitched by Tom earlier today was bad. I do remember the pillowy interior in one Cressida owned by a friend. I don’t remember phony woodgrain dash inserts in any of the cars I rode in but don’t doubt your word that they existed.
I can’t tell where that car was photographed by the background, but that reminds me greatly of the Jim Moran specials we used to have to push when I sold cars in Atlanta. A quick Google search could not find me a pix of one of these things…
South East Toyota Importers (owned by Moran) had all of these brougham-y “specials” they assembled at the port. Padded roofs, sunroofs, hood ornaments and other contraptions would be attached to the cars and then the Monroney stickers would get their add-ons. Sometimes all that added crap would add $1000 or more on to the price of a Corolla! They could be pretty hard to sell when most folks really just wanted a DX model to commute in.
To top it off, most of these “accessories” weren’t as durable as the factory-installed items would have been, so they looked awful after a few years in the Georgia sun.
We did get pretty good spiffs when we sold one of those beasts, but I personally did better selling used cars than those specials.
JM enterprises is still, as far as I can recall, the owners of Southeast Toyota Importers, BTW that Jim Moran is related to the “Valentines Day Massacre” gangster Moran.
I found that pic searching for “83 Cressida”
Indeed they did. They were the embodiment of having “arrived” in status. Big cars equaled being well off.
Broughamed cars had elements that harkened back to the days of old when an automobile was a plaything of the rich. most cars had wire wheels up until the 1930’s so it is a traditional aspect. Comfy seats are just what a person needs while being stuck in traffic.
You see the bulk of Oldsmobile’s traditional buyers ether voted for Calvin Coolidge to be president of the USA or at least were old enough to remember him campaigning to get elected.
Upscale Valiants on the Kiwi market feature loose pillow upholstery there is nothing more uncomfortable to sit on especially if you have to negotiate any corners a purely stupid feature.
Bryce, I don’t think they have corners in (most of) America!
The supply of survivors for cars of this type seems to be larger than the demand.
That is probably because they aren’t that old, certainly not “classics” yet.
Also, in my opinion if I was actively looking for this generation GM coupe, I’d much rather have a Cadillac Fleetwood coupe or an Olds 98. Just as well go for top of the line rather than one of the cheaper versions if you’re going to be paying somewhere around the same money for them.
I have to agree with the folks who acclaim this generation of B bodies as the last, best RWD family style/all purpose cars GM made. The attached pix is not my/our car but one very similar to it. We had a 1977 Delta 88 Holiday, triple black, 403, FE3 suspension, posi, Super Stock 3 Rallys, all the toys and the 1/4 vinyl roof. Great car, never should have sold it, and especially for the POS car we did trade it for. Ugh.
I’ve never totally warmed up to the post-1979 styling, like JPC noted, it seemed a little “melted”. It’s something of a surprise to me that these B-bodies aren’t more collectible by now, but most people focus on the sporty models. These cars had a few sporty models, to be sure, but I think the vast majority were just family haulers and those are horribly passe as collector’s items now.
Frankly, which would you rather have? A 1978 Trans Am S/E “Bandit” edition or a 1978 Bonneville SE with optional fender skirts? More precisely, which one will be worth more in 10 years? There’s a reason why the coffin nose Cord is a classic and the Graham and Hupmobiles are footnotes…
Wow! An early salmon-colored Catfish Taurus in the 3rd picture!
Has anyone ever noticed that the 1977 – 1979 Buick Estate Wagon and Olds Custom Cruiser do not use the same body as their sedan counterparts? These wagons share the same body as the 1977 – 1979 Chevy and Pontiac B body sedans and wagons.
The Estate Wagon has a sheet metal filler panel on the top of the front door where the rear view mirror is mounted. This filler hides the fact that its a Chevy/Pontiac door. The front fender that is used is modified to make it kind of look like the Buick sedan’s front fender, but if you look close, you can see that the body line is flared out at the point where the fender meets the front door, and then it’s smoother towards the front of the car. If the car has wood grain, the molding on top of the wood grain hides this flaw. Also, compare the rear wheel wells to those of the Chevy/Pontiac. They are exactly the same. Also, the crease that runs horizontal in the middle of the body. The Le Sabre and Electra do not have this crease, while the Estate Wagon does.
On the Olds Custom Cruiser, there is no filler panel on the top of the front doors near the rear view mirror, and the front fenders have the top crease just like the Chevy’s, but the wheel wells are similar to the Delta / Ninety Eight sedan. The Custom Cruiser also has the horizontal body crease that the Delta and Ninety Eight doesn’t have. And they also have the same rear wheel well design as the Chevy/Pontiac.
The Pontiac Safari wagon shares the Chevy body too, except it uses the exact same front fenders from the Catalina / Bonneville. The Pontiac sedans and wagons use the exact same doors as the Chevy sedans and wagons.
I guess GM did this so the wagons can all share bodies, except for the front fenders, grilles, and hoods. And that the Buick and Olds sedans could share the same doors, and the Olds and Pontiacs sedans and wagons could share the same doors.
I’ve seen a few 77 to 79 Buick Estate wagons without the wood grain and the passangers side rear view mirror. That piece of sheet metal filler really looks cheap and prominent !
Has anyone else ever noticed this ?????
I had never noticed that! I guess we can see it here. I wish there was a close-up view of that filler.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/that_chrysler_guy/13778743313/sizes/o/
Yes, I noticed this too. Mainly because I had to replace body panels on my Olds wagon and I noticed the sedan parts don’t work. The 1980-90 wagons also use a Chevrolet body shell which results in the front end sheetmetal for the Buick and Olds wagons being unique from the sedans. In fact even a some of the front trim, like headlight bezels were unique between sedans and wagons.
One note though, wagons used different rear doors than the sedans. They “Chevy” style doors, but they will not interchange with the sedans. The wagons doors taper wider from the B pillar to the C pillar. This was to compensate for the wagons wide rear body. I
I’d much rather have the b body than the 79 TA…people forget how slow they were because they were the fastest car (non- Corvette) of their time period, and the hopped up version in the Bandit movies. they would be beaten by a 01 Grand Marquis…which makes sense when you realize they had the same power and weighed more.
A 1979 WS6 Trans Am was about a mid 6’s 0-60 car and 14.8-15.2 through the quarter and I think that’s still faster that an 01 Marquis, they were faster than most comparable Corvettes at the time, they were actually faster than most other cars at the time save for a few exotics(930 Turbo, Countach) as fast or faster than a 1979 308 and most 1979 Porches.
It’s easy enough to fix any lack of power….transplant a Cadillac 425 ci under the hood…..makes all the difference, makes a Delta 88 Royale get right up and go!
Phil, that photo of the Estate Wagon you found on flickr is great. See how the Buick wagon’s body is that of the Chevy!
At least with the wood grain, the filler panel and the bulge in the body line on the front fender is better disguised and kind of makes it look like a Buick.
I wonder if when the buyers of the Estate Wagons and Custom Cruisers were ordering their cars, they knew that they were actually buying Chevy wagons!
This is something that always made me say, “hummmm”.
Something similar happened with the 1991-96 Roadmaster Estate Wagon. The wagon seemed to share it’s front clip sheetmetal with the Caprice while the sedan didn’t. I do prefer the wagon version of the Roadmaster to the sedan.
I also like the 1977-79 GM “B” bodies much more than the 1980 and later ones. I think the restyle of 1980 wasn’t as damaging on the wagons as it was on most other body styles. I might consider buying a 1980 Electra Estate Wagon as these were the last to have 4 portholes and the Buick 350. I still wish I could find locally a ’79 LeSabre Sport Coupe but the only one I have seen so far was a 1980. The 1980 model is rarer than the 1978-79 but I just don’t like it! Still this car had nice options like buckets/console and 4 wheel disc brakes.
Here’s the interior of the 1980 LeSabre Turbo.
I like the ’79 much better!
We had a 79 Limited coupe in this identical color, but with the smaller road wheels and a 301, I remember a silver-blue 79 Turbo LeSabre with the buckets and the “big” road wheels at church when I was a kid, I remember their car seemed so much cooler than our standard Limited 79 coupe.
This is that oddball brown bucket and console LeSabre Turbo without a/c but with buckets and 4 wheel discs, which supposedly weren’t available in 1979.
I like the 1978-1979 versions better too, but if a nice 80 came up locally, I would take it. Especially if it was a 4 wheel disc and bucket and console, the 1980 is super rare, I’ve never seen one in person, I’ve seen a few 78-79’s, very few.
I would like to eventually add an early turbo Buick to my stable, though, for me it would be hard to pick between an nice t-topped Regal Sport Coupe, the really rare aeroback Century Turbo Coupe and a LeSabre Sport Coupe.
I’m wondering why some LeSabres had the small road wheels, they often were those equipped with the the 301, all the Turbo and Estate Wagon models I have seen had the big ones (with the 5×5″ bolt pattern). Years ago, I considered buying a ’77 LeSabre Custom 4 door that had the chrome wheels with the large bolt pattern.
It’s been years since I have seen a Century Turbo Coupe. The last time was in the parking lot of a Club Price (now Costco) in Laval or Montreal QC. The 1980 LeSabre Turbo has been around my hometown for a while but when I inquired about buying it, it had moved in another region. It’s engine had been replaced but the owner had another one and he also had a 1980 LeSabre Limited coupe in better condition in the package.
The only 1979 LeSabre Turbo I have seen (or was it a ’78?) was parked in Fort Lauderdale FL for a few years during the mid-nineties.
If I remember well, it was there: https://www.google.com/maps/@26.0872343,-80.1363738,3a,75y,334.87h,76.56t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sAt0FBpiDlfpxoXBtFhXYhg!2e0?hl=en
Just a few blocks away from there, at the Alamo car rental, I also saw a 1986 LeSabre Grand National driven by a woman with her young kid at the back.
Here’s another detail from the rare 1980.
I’ve probably seen one Grand National LeSabre ever, I do remember the LeSabre T-types on the lot one time I went to the Buick dealer with my grandmother to service her LeSabre. I remember seeing Electra T-types on the lot, and I haven’t seen one of those on the road in years.
Of course there was also the special Turbo 3.8 Litre hood ornament. It is missing on the car you have shown but the chrome strip that it attached to is still there.
I came across a Turbo Lesabre years and years ago that was in the junk yard due to it being in a bad wreck. I took the hood ornament with me. I just came across it in a drawer a few weeks ago and took a picture of it to post here. It had the Buick tri-shield and Turbo 3.8 litre on both sides of it.
Our nephew has a 78 88 for sale right now.
I so want the midnight blue 98 in the brochure shot.
On the small wheels vs big wheels question I have a guess: smaller wheels and tires require less torque to turn both because of their lighter weight and smaller radius. So it would make sense that smaller engined models would have smaller wheels and tires to improve acceleration.
On the other hand I’m guessing that the larger wheels and tires were required on the heavier cars including wagons that also had larger engines capable of accelerating adequately with the larger wheels.
Back in the day there was a local Olds dealer in Providence that used to order their showroom cars loaded with every option. My Aunt bought a 1981 Oldsmobile 98 Regency 4-door from them. It was the showroom car, white with a white vinyl top and tan leather interior. That car had every option Oldsmobile offered – a power moonroof, rear seat reading lamps, cornering lamps, fiber optic lamp monitors, tilt/telescopic steering wheel, gauges, Tempmatic A/C, CB radio – you name it, it had it! I always loved riding in that car. I thought it was so cool being so loaded! Those seats were so comfortable and it rode like a dream too! She sold it in 1992 to a friend of hers and always regretted selling it because it was her absolute favorite car that she ever owned. One day about 3 years ago I was at a friend’s house, and he mentioned that his neighbor had an old car that he wanted to get rid of. He said he thought it was an Oldsmobile or Pontiac from the 80’s but wasn’t too sure. I wanted to investigate so I walked over to the house where this mysterious car was stored. It was covered over with a large blue tarp. The owner came out of the house and asked if I was interested in seeing it. When he pulled the tarp off to my amazement, there it was – my Aunt Janice’s Oldsmobile! I instantly recognized it. It still had the dealership’s red license plate frame on it too! It wasn’t in bad shape, either. The white paint still had some shine to it and the wire wheels still looked good for a 31 year old GM car. Even the tan loose-pillow leather interior looked great! I was afraid it was too good to be true and it was. The saddest thing was that it was totally rusted out underneath – the frame, brake lines and exhaust were all shot. Plus it hadn’t been started in over two years, and when we tried to do so the trusty Olds 307 V-8 with 184,000 miles on it did not want to turn over. We tried everything to get that Regency to start. Nothing. All hope was lost and I sadly had to walk away from it. I found out that the owner had it junked due to the rust/no-start issue. The engine had seized and it wasn’t worth fixing due to the rust issues underneath. He tried selling it for parts but there were no takers since the engine was no good. A sad ending to a truly memorable car!
Hi Everyone,
The car in the article with the “434 Z” license plate belonged to my Dad, who passed away on May 1st at the age of 99.
We were sitting around in the kitchen a few years back when I was showing Dad the wonders of the internet on my laptop, and how you could find out just about anything just by googling it. He had lost a hubcap, so I showed him how we could find a replacement by googling “1981 Oldsmobile Royale” and lo and behold, HIS CAR popped up on the screen! It was a pretty funny moment for all of us.
So yes, he was the elderly gentleman who shlepped up to Panera on Sunday mornings for his breakfast, carefully parking where no one would ding his doors. This was when the car had approximately 375,000 miles on it. Shortly thereafter, he spent $5k and put a new drivetrain in it – part of the insanity that goes with automobile sentimentality.
In 2017, he was 95 years old when the Olds finally died. The frame cracked in the middle – all those Massachusetts winters with chloride roads. Around the same time, he got called in to Motor Vehicles for a license renewal test. Having just had cataract surgery , his vision was 20-20- and he passed with flying colors – so he marched off to the Toyota dealer and bought a brand new 2017 Camry. When I asked him if he was going to trade it every few years, he said “Hell no, I’m driving it into the ground!” Well, Toyotas are built to last… and outlast, which it did sadly. It sits in his garage now, four years old, with 12,000 miles on it.
Have no doubt though: the Olds was his “soul” car.
Neat! Thanks for chiming up. Condolences on losing your dad.